October 6th
by Keirra
Summary: <html><head></head>Nami learns Law's birthday and decides they have to throw him a surprise party. But how do you get a man who would rather spend his night home alone to willingly show up? Silly little fluff for my favorite pirate's birthday. Modern AU and Lawna flufflyness.</html>


October 6th

"I don't know Nami, is this really a good idea?" Usopp asked, not daring to stop drawing the banner she had ordered him to make even as he protested the need for it.

"Of course it's a good idea," she answered, waving his concerns away as she arranged the various party foods and snacks on the table. "What kind of friends would we be if we didn't throw him a party?"

"But don't you think he would have _told_ us about his birthday if he wanted us to make a big deal out of it?" The long nosed art student was worried about how the man in question might react if this was an unwelcome surprise. He wasn't exactly known for being a "party" person after all.

"Just because he didn't tell anyone when his birthday was doesn't meant anything. Besides now that we know what it is as his friends it is our responsibility to throw him a party."

Usopp set down his brush and looked seriously at his friend, "I don't think it counts when you only know his birthday because you stole his wallet last month."

She shrugged, stepping back and looking over the spread of snacks and running through her mental checklist to make sure she had not forgotten anything. "It doesn't matter how I know Usopp. Besides the party is in less than an hour so it's too late the change plans anyway."

"What did you tell him to get him here?" Robin asked from the other side of the room where she had been selecting the movies they would watch. They had decided that the guest of honor would prefer a quieter party than their normal shindigs and putting on a movie was a good way to keep the more energetic boys quiet. In theory anyway. Nami wanted to be sure he would enjoy his party, just in case he _really_ didn't want one.

"I didn't tell him anything," she said with a grin. "I have an idea that will be perfect but I can't use it yet."

The older woman gave her a knowing glance, "is he going to appreciate your idea?"

Nami giggled, "no but it will get him here."

Robin laughed softly as Usopp looked at the orange haired woman in horror. "He is going to kill us. I don't know what you are going to do, but he is going to come here just to murder us isn't he?"

Nami walked over to Usopp, who was on the edge of hysterics now, and thumped him on the head with her fist. "Knock it off! He is not a psychopath or anything like that. Just finish decorating!"

She stormed away, knowing she was being overly harsh on her friend but she couldn't help it. Admittedly she knew Law intimidated people, hell he probably went out of his way to do it, and Usopp was a coward so he couldn't help it either. It's just that when people talked bad about Law it always made her feel….upset? Angry? Defensive? All of the above?

She sighed, shaking her head and pushing the uncomfortable questions of why she felt like that away. It was almost time to call Law and she needed her mind clear to pull this off. She knew she was going to have to be convincing to get him to come over according to plan.

Nami stepped outside, looking up at the sky. It was barely 8 in the evening but the days had already started to shorten and it looked like the dead of night. The cloud cover, hiding any stars and the mostly full moon, made the night even darker than she had expected. This was perfect for her plan and she smiled as she walked. Five blocks to go and then she would call Robin to make sure everything was ready and then it would be time to call Law.

She really hoped he didn't hate birthday parties.

Law was having a terrible day. In general his birthday was a day he tried to ignore as much as possible, he was perfectly happy to let the day pass without any comment, notice or fanfare. This was a concept it had taken ages to drill into the heads of his closest friends, Shachi and Penguin.

A concept they had, apparently, forgotten. Everyone at the hospital knew about his birthday. Even the patients! He had gotten cards and treats, random people whose name's he didn't even know were hugging him, clapping him on the back, telling him age was just a number and that he was only as old as he acted. The worst bit was all the nurses though. There were 17 nurses on his floor, 14 of which were women. Every one of them had offered him a date, or other less innocent things, for a special birthday treat. Even the married ones!

He sighed heavily as he opened his door, happy to finally be home and even more relieved to be alone. There were days he wished he was married just so they would leave him be. They never harassed any of the married doctors the way they did him.

If only it was that simple.

The future Mrs. Trafalgar was, if she indeed existed, proving very hard indeed to find.

Law made his way straight to his favorite chair, bottle of his favorite whiskey in hand. He was prepared to spend his evening with the full bottle and the new book he had picked up earlier in the week about revolutionary techniques for the removal of brain tumors in conscious patients.

He was in the process of opening the bottle when his phone began to ring.

He glared hard at the item, debating if it would be a terrible thing to just ignore it. It couldn't be important, right? It was probably Nurse Lola again. She had been the most persistent of all his would be dates for the night. It would surprise him little to find out that Shachi had given his phone number to the rather large woman.

The phone stopped ringing and he went back to his task, annoyed about the amount of thick foil the manufacturer had sealed the bottle with. It was whiskey, not liquid gold.

The phone rang again.

This time he picked it up, unlocking the screen to see who was calling. If it wasn't a number from his contact list he wasn't going to answer it.

However he was met with the smiling face of a beautiful, bright-haired young woman.

Nami was calling him.

He immediately hit answer and put the phone up to his ear.

"Nami-ya?" He answered, skipping the pleasantries of saying hello.

"Tora-kun thank god!" she cried from the other end of the line. Her voice was high pitched and sounded distressed. "When you didn't answer I was so worried. I wasn't sure what to do anymore. No one will answer their phones and I don't know what to do. I tried everyone! Luffy, Zoro, Sanji, Franky, Brook, Robin-"

"Nami-ya stop," he interrupted her, sure she would list everyone they had a mutual acquaintance with if he didn't, "are you alright?"

"I'm scared Tora-kun," she said softly, like she was embarrassed to admit it.

"What do you mean?"

"There's this guy that's been following me since I left work. I thought I was being paranoid so I went into a market, you know the little one on 7th, and he is just waiting outside, across the street! I've been in here for almost 45 minutes and he won't leave. I don't know what to do, you have to help me Tora-kun!" By the end of her story she sounded like she was crying, taking deep breaths and pausing in between her words. He was fairly sure he had even heard a sob.

Law sat quietly for a moment, letting her words, and obvious distress, sink in. Someone was stalking her, a man, and she was all alone. Normally Nami was a very capable young woman, she had gotten herself out of lots of bad scrapes in her side work as a at burglar. He knew all about her adventures because when one went bad he would be the one to patch her up. He didn't care how his patients got injured usually but for some reason with her he refused to treat her until she promised to tell him the whole truth of how she was injured.

She had face much worse that a pervert haunting her steps but something about this guy must have spooked her. He wasn't sure why but that pissed him off.

"Law?" she asked, tentatively, her voice (and the unusual use of his given name stirring him from his thoughts. He looked longingly at the bottle on his table and sighed.

"I'll be there in ten minutes. Don't go outside and stay where the clerk can see you."

He heard a relieved sigh from the other end of the line and could almost see the smile her voice betrayed. "Thank you Tora-kun"

Law hurried out to his car, anxious to get there and make sure she was alright. Maybe the guy would still be there and he would get to hit someone. Nothing relieved stress as well as sex or violence, and he counting on getting the former but maybe the latter could be arranged.

He got to the store in 6 minutes.

The moment Law walked into the small convenience store, a little bell ringing over his head, Nami threw her arms around him.

"Tora-kun you came!" She cried, doing her best to sound appropriately upset, "thank you!"

She smiled into his chest when his arms automatically encircled her. "Of course I came, I said I would. Are you alright?"

She pulled back, smiling again but making sure it was a little sad around the edges. And Nojiko said all those acting lessons would never coming in handy, she thought to herself as she nodded. "I am now."

"Good," he said simply, "let's get you home."

He pulled her with him out the door and towards his car. It was a bit awkward, walking with their arms all tangled around each other but she was afraid to let go and seem too at ease with the situation. She wasn't sure why he kept his around her but she wasn't about to complain.

He opened the car door, finally releasing her body and motioned for her to get in. After she did he locked the door, glancing around looking for her "stalker" no doubt, before walking around the car and getting in himself.

"I don't see anyone suspicious Nami-ya." He commented as the engine roared to life. She smiled at the sound. Nami loved his car. It was a sleek, sexy, two door sports car he had bought after he became head of cardiovascular surgery at his hospital. It had heated leather seats, all the latest technology options and was painted an eye catching bright yellow.

She made a big show out of looking out all the windows, eyes slightly wider than was natural, "weird. Maybe he left when he saw you hug me at the door?"

"That wasn't a hug," he said quickly.

She smiled at him, "it sure felt like one."

"Whatever." He sighed, "Why weren't you going home with Mugiwara-ya? Doesn't he normally walk you home after work?"

Nami frowned, "he didn't answer when I called him. He must be busy."

"Busy?" He asked, glancing quickly at her as he drove. "All he does is play video games with Long-nose-ya and Tony-ya, how could he be busy?"

"I'm sure I don't know." She kept her eyes diverted as they spoke. She was starting to get nervous about the surprise. What is Usopp was right and he got angry? Nami was also worried he would get upset about her act. She honestly hadn't expected him to react quite that way. She had been prepared to beg him to come out and deal with a moody man when he arrived. This display of protectiveness was surprising.

Silence fell between them, though it wasn't as comfortable as Nami would have liked. Everything that could go wrong tonight was running through her mind and she was beginning to feel like an entire flock of butterflies had taken up residency in her stomach.

"Nami-ya," he said, breaking the silence as he pulled the car to a stop. "if Mugiwara-ya is too busy to come walk you home, why is his car parked in your driveway? In fact it looks like all of your friends are here."

She was going to kill them.

Sure she hadn't told them to hide their cars but were they really that dense? Robin, Franky and Brook were smart enough, even if the latter two were quite eccentric, to know that their cars needed to be out of sight for this to work. Apparently the rest didn't understand the concept of a _surprise_ party.

She turned and looked at him and the expression on his face confirmed that he not only suspected something was up, he was sure of it.

"Explain Nami-ya." his voice had lost the softer tone he had been using earlier, when asking if she was alright, and was now hard as steel.

Figuring there was no easy way out of this she smiled at him brightly, "I know what today is." she teased, knowing he would be able to read between the lines.

"No."

"What?"

"I never asked you to throw a party for me."

"Well duh, it wouldn't be a surprise party if we made you ask for it!"

"I am not coming in."

"Why not?"

He sighed heavily, looking away from her. "I just want a quiet night at home. Alone."

Her expression softened and she reached across the car, having to leave over the center console, to place a hand on his cheek. Gently she turned his face to meet his eyes. He had gone very still at her action and stared back at her questioningly.

"No one should be alone on their birthday Law," she said quietly.

"Why do you want to throw me a party anyway?"

"To celebrate of course."

"That doesn't answer my question. What are _you_ celebrating?"

She smiled at him, a softer, sweeter smile than he had ever seen before. Her cheeks flushed a soft pink and suddenly they both became very aware of their position, Nami half crawled over the center console of the car to reach him, their faced inches apart as she leaned forward to brace her weight on his door.

"I'm celebrating you Law."

They stared at each other for a long moment. He watched intently as her eyes darted down to his lips as she licked her own. She leaned forward slightly and he was much too surprised by her actions, and her words, to do anything besides statically wait to see if her lips would meet his. If they were as soft as they looked like. If they tasted like her lip gloss.

Her phone rang, startling them both. Nami pulled back, sitting in her own seat again and pulling out the device.

"It's Luffy. They can see your car Tora-kun," she said, a coy smile on her lips, "you can't avoid this."

"Nami-ya." His voice sounded almost like he was pleading with her, though she wasn't sure what for.

"Get out of the car Law and we can finish our _conversation_ later."

Sighing in defeat he opened his door and exited the car. She waited until she was sure he wasn't going to just jump back in his car and leave before exiting as well and walking around the car to join him. They walked up the door in silence, both consumed by their own thoughts.

Nami was reaching for the door handle when he wrapped his tattooed hand around her wrist. She looked up at him curiously.

"Nami-ya, how did you know it was my birthday?"

She froze, feeling the blood drain from her face and laughed nervously. She wasn't sure how to answer that question, and how to answer it without angering the man. What she needed was a way out, a distraction. She felt the cool metal of the doorknob under her fingers and knew exactly what to do. She smiled at him, turned the knob and pushed the door open.

"Nami don't," He started, trying to stop her, but was interrupted by a room full of people, all of their mutual friends, yelling "SURPRISE! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" at the top of their lungs.

Even though he was expecting it the magnitude of their shouts startled the man, his grip loosening on the her wrist. She took advantage and slipped away, moving to stand among her friends. He glared at her as he was pulled into the house and the door shut behind him. All escape routes had been closed so he figured he had no choice except to go along with it. He did however throw her a look that guaranteed he wouldn't forget about her promise to continue their _conversation_ afterwards.


End file.
